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Despite all that action there's a lot more that can and needs to be done, and there are many more people and organisations who could do it. Some estimates suggest that there are as many as 750,000 community groups in the UK: as well as those 11,000 conservation groups, there are residents associations, youth groups, religious organisations, women's groups, and of course there are sports and leisure groups of all shapes and sizes, many of whom are out in local parks or other green spaces every week. All those groups are made up of people who want to work with other people and who mostly share a desire to have a better quality of life. Yet relatively few of them are actively working on their local environment. That's a shame, but it is something that can be changed: perhaps one reason is that they don't feel that the environment has anything to do with them or believe that it's not their responsibility. That is perhaps the biggest single challenge for local people who are active on these issues: to connect with all those people who care about where they live, but think that 'the environment' is something that you watch on television. The unfortunate fact is that all too often that perception has been helped by environment groups who have been seen as technical experts talking about over-complicated issues using incomprehensible jargon. It doesn't help that the traditional image of 'an environmentalist' is of a thoroughly well-meaning well-educated middle-class white person. The environmental movement has certainly in the past been accused of caring far more about people's impact on the environment, than on the impact of a poor environment on people. This attitude is starting to change and needs to change more: that's not to say that concerns for the 'bigger picture' are not entirely justified, but they need to be linked to the concerns that are high on the list of people living in the very worst environments. There are perhaps three important issues that anyone interested in developing environmental work, that is genuinely inclusive, needs to think about. The first of these is in terms of how those working on environmental issues can work effectively with other professions and disciplines operating in the same area. The second concerns the environmental inequalities that exist in our society and ways to tackle these through an 'environmental justice' approach. The last focuses on how our work locally links to and supports work on global concerns. All content copyright © 1986-2009 BTCV Ltd. Registered charity No. 261009 |
